Having heard the story of a hidden cache of coins many years ago I was interested to hear that the family of the man who hid the cache had been searching for it for forty years. They had bought and borrowed various machines over the years including hoard hunters and had never found a thing. Local detecting clubs had had a go to no effect.
The family were certain that a fairly large sum was involved as a large area of land had been sold off and the money had just disappeared. The grandfather didn't really trust banks and thought there was to be another war.
I decided a trip to the site with a range of both the latest machines and some old classics in the hope something might turn something up. Four days later I had found nothing but scrap metal and was using a P.I. to get the maximum depth. Only thing that kept me going was that the amount of rubbish suggested that all previous searches had been made using discrimination and I thought it likely that a metal can may have been used to protect the coins.
Needless to say the only thing I gained was a bad back.
Having returned home I thought I had detected down to a reasonable depth over the whole area that was not in view from neighbouring properties. So either he had buried the cache super deep which didn't seem to likely as he was nearly ninety or had picked an area in view but perhaps dug the hole at night.
A return trip seemed called for.
A couple of weeks later I was back on site but again could not find anything worthwhile.
A change in the weather with driving rain stopped further outside hunting but I thought a further indoor search might be worth it. This I soon started to regret having removed cupboards off walls and broken into a few hollow sections that were all empty. The attic space had been stripped and searched many times over the years but with a black light unit I knew any work/repairs would show up. They did. Trouble was there were many patched in sections.
Out came an old pre motion meter discriminator and I soon had a good (or rather bad) signal. Drilling out round the edge of the brick was a major job but I eventually managed to get it out. Behind was a coffee jar sized tin jammed solid. The next brick was easier to remove and as I hoped the tin was heavy.
Nearly falling down the ladder in excitement I took it down to the garden and tapped the top off.
It days like this that make metal detecting worthwhile. Inside packed almost to the top were old cloat nails ! I assume as the house went up the container had been dropped down the cavity of the wall. I felt sick.
So another wasted trip. The next day I had to return to Wales.
Before leaving I thought I might as well finish what I had started and check the last few possible places. One gave a fairly good and large signal so again out with the drill. This time a rectangular tin...even heavier. Here we go again I thought !
Well success at last. No coins but I'll settle for silver. Each bar weighs one kilo....about 2.2 pounds. Here's a scan of some of my share.
The family were certain that a fairly large sum was involved as a large area of land had been sold off and the money had just disappeared. The grandfather didn't really trust banks and thought there was to be another war.
I decided a trip to the site with a range of both the latest machines and some old classics in the hope something might turn something up. Four days later I had found nothing but scrap metal and was using a P.I. to get the maximum depth. Only thing that kept me going was that the amount of rubbish suggested that all previous searches had been made using discrimination and I thought it likely that a metal can may have been used to protect the coins.
Needless to say the only thing I gained was a bad back.
Having returned home I thought I had detected down to a reasonable depth over the whole area that was not in view from neighbouring properties. So either he had buried the cache super deep which didn't seem to likely as he was nearly ninety or had picked an area in view but perhaps dug the hole at night.
A return trip seemed called for.
A couple of weeks later I was back on site but again could not find anything worthwhile.
A change in the weather with driving rain stopped further outside hunting but I thought a further indoor search might be worth it. This I soon started to regret having removed cupboards off walls and broken into a few hollow sections that were all empty. The attic space had been stripped and searched many times over the years but with a black light unit I knew any work/repairs would show up. They did. Trouble was there were many patched in sections.
Out came an old pre motion meter discriminator and I soon had a good (or rather bad) signal. Drilling out round the edge of the brick was a major job but I eventually managed to get it out. Behind was a coffee jar sized tin jammed solid. The next brick was easier to remove and as I hoped the tin was heavy.
Nearly falling down the ladder in excitement I took it down to the garden and tapped the top off.
It days like this that make metal detecting worthwhile. Inside packed almost to the top were old cloat nails ! I assume as the house went up the container had been dropped down the cavity of the wall. I felt sick.
So another wasted trip. The next day I had to return to Wales.
Before leaving I thought I might as well finish what I had started and check the last few possible places. One gave a fairly good and large signal so again out with the drill. This time a rectangular tin...even heavier. Here we go again I thought !
Well success at last. No coins but I'll settle for silver. Each bar weighs one kilo....about 2.2 pounds. Here's a scan of some of my share.
